Maybe it was the Sea Salt Chocolate!

Yay! I'm so excited to finally see a loss, it has been a whopping 36 days since I've seen a loss! Wow....how appropriate that I found a turtle with the number 57 on it! You know, I don't care if it takes me a year or two to lose the rest of my weight. I will do it. I keep holding on to the thought that I might end up like Judi (Stories from the Road) and all of a sudden my body decides to lose weight quickly for the second half of the journey. Either way, I'm really happy with my progress. I really hope I can stay away from chocolate today, but I went to bed thinking about the salted chocolate....OH MY! Have a great day everyone, the weekend is almost here! Big Hugs, T

Why?

Why is it that after a tough time with my band, getting stuck and PBing, I want to eat everything in sight? Today I have just been so... in the mood to eat. I want to eat bad things, good things, all things! I'm still pretty tight and am having to be careful. But all I can think about is candy and chips and junk! Does anyone else experience this. I have noticed it in the past, like I feel sorry for myself because I'm hungry and can't eat, I feel deprived and all of that triggers the desire to overeat and eat badly. Then today, Grace told us about Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt. I love all things sweet and savory together, so I got some! It was divine, OMG! I shared it with my co-workers, so I didn't do badly calorie wise, but I have enormous guilt feelings after I eat things like that. I walked the Easter candy Isle and fantasized about every delicious morsel. I didn't get one of everything like I wanted....I shared the thing I got. In the big scheme of things, that was pretty good. I hate that I feel like I'm cheating on someone! I still have some work to do on this brain of mine. Again, I thank you for all of your uplifting comments. You always know how to make me feel good, now if you could just make me feel like exercising and eating right, we'd be in business. I hope you have a great day! Big Hugs, T

Feeling much better!

Wow, I 'm feeling so much better! Thank you all so much for your kind words and advice. I stuck with liquids yesterday and so far this morning and am feeling much better. Water is going down just fine. Hormones really affect band tightness for me and I'm just going to have to get it through my head that when I first start feeling the signs of tightness, I'm going to have to back off and just do liquids. I swear one day I'm going to catch on. Last night I went to school with my youngest and did his schedule for High School!!! Oh, the reality is setting in now! I can't believe both of my boys will be in High School next year! Wow! I told you guys about the painting I'm working on for a friend. It's going to go in his boat house and it's a crab, painted on wood. My husband cut the crab out on his fancy new saw for me out of 1/4" plywood and then we will glue the crab onto a piece of 1/2 ply. All I have left to do is glue it on and paint the shadows of the crab on the background. I'm excited with the way it's turned out, so I thought I'd share with you. I took the picture with my phone, so it's not the best pic in the world. Last week my hubby did a post about the gay men in my life and how they spoil me with compliments, complete understanding and beautiful flowers every time they come over. The next picture is a vase of flowers my friend T brought me from his yard, they are Snowball Viburnums and they are just stunning, so I thought I'd share that too!

The above was also taken with my phone, a little blurry, it was about 1 am and I had a little wine and some Champagne, so.... the painting next to it of the crazy dog is one of mine too.

I feel bad for all you Northerners who are still freezing up there, the weather is beautiful here and Spring has definitely sprung, but don't go getting to excited for me, we'll be wishing for Winter in no time when the 100 degree, 100% humidity appears. I hope you all have a great day, I'm looking forward to gingerly eating today and having no stuck episodes!

Big Hugs!

T

Time to baby my band...

It's time for me to get back to basics, time to stay on liquids and mushies until my band decides it likes me again. I don't know what's going on, but I'm super tight. I've thrown up more this weekend than I have since I've had my band. Friday, I got stuck at lunch and PB'd, stuck on mashed potatoes, and then I ate some gumbo that evening, no rice, just the juice....stuck and violent PB. Saturday, I ate 1/2 of an avocado, smashed up....stuck, PB. I ate soup later and that was fine. That night, we had boiled crawfish no problem with them. Sunday, soup for breakfast...fine, soup for lunch....fine, later some chips...fine. Then I had a dinner party to go to, the first course was a bisque, stuck...PB, I threw up 3 times at the dinner party and when I got home I was miserable and telling my hubby I want an unfill right away. Last night, I wake up, can't drink water. This morning, coffee....barely goes down. I had some very soft oatmeal for breakfast and it was fine, but I'm really sore, my throat hurts, my chest hurts and it hurts between my shoulder blades. I'm tired of getting stuck and getting sick. I don't understand why all of a sudden I'm so tight. Plus, it makes me worry that I'm going to damage my band or my esophagus this way. Any suggestions for how long I should stay on liquids/mushies to make sure the inflammation is gone? Any one else having issues with sudden tightness? I'll take whatever advice you've got.

Other than the sucky stucky part of the weekend, things were good. Like I said we had boiled crawfish this weekend and they were delicious, I have some left so I'll be making and etoufee (pronounced A 2 fay) this week with the tails. I have been working on a painting of a crab for one of our friends and painted all day yesterday, I'm so pleased with the way it's turning out. I can't wait to finish this week. Our kids are good, my hubs is good, life is good.

Take it easy!

Big Hugs,

T

Much ado about something...and BYOC

click on the image to enlarge

I've been talking about it all week. And here it is my one year Bandiversary. I'm happy with my progress, although when I started, I just knew I'd be at my goal in one year. I'm not, but I'm happy with the progress. I'm 5'9" tall, at my heaviest I was in a size 26 pants, a size 24 or 3x top and I quit weighing myself at 285! In the picture taken today, I'm wearing a large t-shirt and a size 16 jeans, I'm dressed for my son's track meet after school today and I feel pretty normal! When I was looking for pictures to put together for the collage above, I realized just how long I've been hiding myself and making sure no full body pictures ever saw the light of day! Any way, before surgery I followed Catherine's advice and took my measurements, I would urge all you newbies to do the same, the results are pretty impressive to me, they are:

Neck -2

Bust -7

Waist -8

Hips -10

Thigh -5

Upper arm -2

Calf -2

For a total of 36 inches lost, I'll take it!

And now a little BYOC

1. How do you handle criticism? From anyone but my husband very well. I don't know why, but if my husband criticizes me, even in the most gentle way, it hurts my feelings and I'm a child. Sad but true!

2. Who had or has had the greatest impact on your life? I think my 2 brothers and my sister, they practically raised me, when my parents died they all stepped up and did whatever they could to take care of me. My brothers took over my dad's business and did a beautiful job with it, they are all damn fine people!

3. If you had a friend that spoke to you the way YOU speak to yourself – would you keep them as a friend and for how long? At this point in my life, absolutely not, but I stayed with a man for 23 years who talked to me like I was less than human. Now, I'm a much different person!

4. Do you think crying is a form or weakness or a form of strength? I think it is a sign of both. For me, I always felt week when I cried and I cried a lot, but now I realize what a gift it is to be able to feel what you feel and express that. I found that once I worked through some pain from my past, I didn't cry near as much, I didn't need to. I still cry when I need to and I know without a doubt that I am strong... I am woman...hear me roar!

5. Repeat question: Summarize your week in blog land and in real life. In blog land...it's my one year Bandiversary, and for many of my blog sisters as well! Also, jealousy rears it's ugly head as I see picture after picture of the NYC brunch...I can't wait to see you guys in Chicago! In real life, busy, busy I'm so looking forward to the weekend!

Have a wonderful Friday and enjoy the weekend.

Big Hugs,

T

In anticipation of my Bandiversary!

Tomorrow it will be one year since my surgery. It hardly seems possible. It's been a wonderful year, filled with excitement and a few ups and downs. I've learned a great deal about myself and Pearl my band. There is still much that I need to learn...for instance, when to just stop. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when my band is irritated and I have repeated stuck moments and PB's, you would think that after a year, I would know to just stop, don't try to eat anything but liquids and mushies and don't tempt fate, just stop... yeah, well I'm a slow learner. Last night I had one of the worst PB/stuck episodes of my banded career, I was in pain I babied my band after that and then in the middle of the night I woke up and out of habit just took two giant gulps of water from my cup and was up half the night retching and feeling regret.

All that aside, I will say that I am so grateful that I got the band. It has been a challenge trying to undo 47 years of bad eating habits, but overall, I think I've done okay. I looked back on my blog and found my top ten list of things I wanted from the band. Here it is:



10. To no longer be obese. (I am 9 pounds away from not being Obese on the BMI chart!)


9. To feel comfortable in my clothes. (I would say that this has happened for me, I'm much more comfortable in my clothes and with myself.)


8. To get my blood pressure under control. (I'm still on meds, but my blood pressure is 116/66, so on my next visit I think my doc will start weening me from the meds, before, my BP was high even on 2 kinds of medication.)


7. To take a beach vacation and not feel inclined to wear at tent! (I think this is not going to be a problem, I've been searching swim suits online already in anticipation, and it should be way better than last year.)


6. To adjust the seat in my car without having to move my butt to one side to get my arm down there! (Victory, I never thought that would happen for me, but it has!)


5. To no longer know the Muffin man! (he lives above my waist) -- (I'm happy to report, no muffin top!)


4. To weigh less than my husband. (Yay! Again, I never thought that this could happen, it's not by much, but it feels great!)


3. To wear a football mom shirt and not feel so out of place. (Done, I'm starting to feel more and more normal!)


2. To weigh less than the average starting lineman on any given Sunday.(Done! The actual average weight of linemen in the NFL is 270, so Yay!)

And....the number one thing I want from the band.....

1. For my personality to be bigger than my butt! (I don't know about this one, but on some days I think yes...maybe so!)

I still don't know if I'll be able to locate my befores, but if not, I'll save them for my 2 year post or for my goal post....which, I now know I will reach! I shudder to think what a lonely journey this would be had I not stumbled upon this wonderful community of bloggers. I still can't believe that I flew half way across the country to go hang out with people I met on line in Chicago last year, it just goes to show you that what we have here is really special. I thank you all for your support and the camaraderie. I'll post officially tomorrow. Have a great day!
Big Hugs!
T

I feel like posting....

but I've got nothing. Maybe tomorrow I'll be more inspired. Feel free to make suggestions.

Have a great Wednesday....the hubs is a little under the weather, so I don't think we'll be having date night tonight. I'll have a glass of wine with Cameron on "Modern Family", he and I are just alike.

Giant Hugs!

T